Posted by: Tom Waz (sluggoking@msn.com) on Tue Jun 29 10:01:51 2004

according to adair, optimum bat angle at contact is 35 degrees, assuming ( i think) that bat contacts center of ball.....
> > according to watts & bahill, optimum bat angle is about 20 degrees or so, with emphasis of hitting 1/4 to 1/2 inch below center, creating backspin and creating an additional 15 or so degrees of ball launch angle (so 20 + 15 = adair's 35 degrees)....
> > this may be a gross over-simplification of what adair, watts & bahill are saying, but these are my questions:
> >
> > forget, for a moment about the downward angle of the pitch itself....hypothetically, let's say a hitter contacts a ball, dead center with the bat angle @ 0 degrees at contact ("level"), and let's say he hits a fairly straight line drive 200 feet......now let's say the same hitter, same pitch, swing, has a slight uppercut so that at contact the bat, instead of being "level", is instead at about 15 degrees or so....
> >
> > (1) how much farther will the 2nd line drive, having an angle of let's say 15 degrees or so greater than the 1st line drive?
> >
> > (2) if the ball does go farther, will it be because the trajectory of the line drive is a greater angle than the 1st, fairly straight line drive.....or....will it be because contacting the ball with a bat angle of 15 degrees is tountamount to hitting the ball below center, thus creating backspin?.....
> >
> > i hope my question makes since... to briefly summarize, i want to know how much, if any difference there is in the distance the ball is hit, depending on (1) being "level" at contact vs. a slight, 15 degree or so upswing at contact and (2) hitting the ball slightly below center.....
> >
> > thank you....
>
> grc,
>
> Adair actually has a good discussion about distance versus upswing angle in his book. I don't have my copy of Adair here at work, but I'll take a look when I get home. I remember him comparing a Carew who had nearly a level swing (swing matches the plane of the pitch, or approximately 10 degrees), to a Reggie Jackson (whose upswing angle was closer to 20 degrees) and he compared the distances from his model. Yes, there is a significant distance difference as expected. One can throw a ball further when giving it some arc rather than on a line, which is just basic ballistics and not related to backspin.
>
> I'll check the book when I get home and give you a few more comments later. I don't recollect all of his assumptions in his distance predicts.
>
> -JJA
>
>

Assuming the desired angle for a hit ball is 30 degrees above horizontal...

If we were hitting off a tee, the maximum ball velocity would be achieved if we swung the bat at 30 degrees and the ball traveled at 30 degrees. If we swing level and the ball travels at a 30 degree angle only 86 percent (the cosine of 30 degrees) of the bat's velocity is transferred to the ball.

What hitters want to do is minimize the sum of the angle differences between the incoming ball and the bat and the outgoing ball and the bat.

If the pitch is coming in at 15 degrees and you want the ball going out at 30 degrees the best bat angle would be halfway in between or 22.5 degrees (although this won't give you the best chance of making contact or any backspin)

A level swing on a pitch coming in at 15 degrees and leaving at 30 degrees will have about 8-14 percent less velocity than if you swung at 22.5 degrees above horizontal. About 25-42 feet on a 300-foot hit.

- Tom Waz